Priceless

Inappropriate land management leads to a depletion of important resources. Threats to country include weeds, inappropriate and indiscriminate burning, feral animals and inappropriate development.

The construction of an LNG gas processing facility between James Price Point and Quandong Point, will have an effect on the coastal ecology of much of the western side of the Dampier Peninsula. The massive ‘macromareal’ tides and strong currents have the ability to spread toxins right along a broad sweep of the Kimberley coast.

Aboriginal people were forced from their lands and seas during the European invasions of Australia from the 1800’s onwards. This country was as PRISTINE and CLEAN as it was since the beginning of human existence and it was the aboriginal race who had been the ones responsible.

It didn’t take long before the country missed its carers. A desperate situation began to emerge. No one else wanted this job. Europeans only wanted to dwell in towns and to create farm lands and had no knowledge of how complex and spiritual the aboriginal land & sea management systems had been.

So aboriginal people were displaced, all over Australia they were forced off their lands, had their children stolen from them and were placed in missions run by religious denominations, we all know this story. This government policy crushed an ancient culture, probably the oldest living culture on earth and their knowledge of Australia which was gathered over thousands of years by a race that had managed to survive healthily and happily, knowledge lost not only to them but to everyone else as well.
The land and sea which was once abundant with wild life of every kind was starting to suffer from neglect. Too much was being taken from it and nothing was being given back. Bushlands were turned into cattle grazing areas introducing foreign weeds and grasses. Huge areas of land were cleared of native vegetation for mono- farming and terrible bush fires started ravishing the land creating dead, forest wastelands, leaving little food sources for wild life which one by one headed for extinction. Seas that used to be able to provide amply for the populations that relied upon it were now being greedily over fished and polluted, leaving the majority with very little.

The sad part of this scenario is that today we still don’t learn from our mistakes and are no better off. We have a government that wants to rip this country apart by taking out precious minerals and resources that can never be replaced. They are hell bent on a different type of destruction in search of the holy $. They are not going to leave any stone unturned. Australia managed to escape the global financial crisis, yippee but, and it’s a big but, we have to sacrifice our future and culture, precious land, clean air, ancient aquifers, coral reefs, wild life and sea life and leave nothing for our children and their children to fuel the desire for wealth of the precious few once again.

This governments decision to open up a LNG gas hub at James Price Point, mine coal near the Fitzroy River, take bauxite from the Mitchell Plateau, copper from Horizontal Falls, uranium the list goes on and on. To take so much, give nothing back to the land offer aboriginal’s health care, schooling and the opportunity of ripping up their precious country, (employment). To never be able to put the wrong right shows us just how unremarkable they are at solving problems.

These decisions are disastrous for aboriginal people, their country and sacred places and will only hurt them more. All of us ordinary people are also going to suffer greatly when we are left with the mess they plan to make and when we look out and remember what used to be!